(Artwork by: Cyril Rolando)
Have you ever wondered why people are proud of their beliefs?
Why would you have satisfaction for having an opinion? Everyone has opinions. The act of believing doesn't require any effort at all.
In fact, it's the opposite that is challenging. Battling your own ego takes guts. No one likes to be wrong, so genuinely opening up to that possibility is the real test of courage.
Its perfectly natural to ignore things that don't jive with our already made up minds - its called confirmation bias. How often have you had an opinion, heard some good reasons that indicate you're probably wrong, and still thought to yourself, Screw it, I'm going to believe this anyway. I know I've done it.
John Kenneth Galbraith said it best:
"Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.”
Strong beliefs are just opinions you refuse to reconsider. Sure, you have good reasons for your views. Everyone does. But you're human, so you are just as susceptible as anyone to cognitive biases, bad judgement, and overemphasizing personal experience.
If you should be proud of anything, its having the humility to admit that even where you're most certain, you could still be wrong. Can you imagine a world where we were all this humble?
The Role of Ego
This is a large part of what ego is all about - that sense of self assurance we all get that makes us reject the idea of possibly being wrong. It makes us prefer to be agreed with rather than be corrected. We ignore those who disagree with us on matters that mean the most to us. Shouldn't it be the opposite?
Often times we deride those with big egos, labeling them as arrogant, self-centered, and lacking humility. You know the type. They walk around acting as if their "sh!t don't stink". Wouldn't the world be better off without big egos?
But hold on...
Why do we even have an ego? Do you ever wonder why the human ego evolved?
It's possible that humanity depends on ego to continually progress, at least the part defined by a strong self assurance. The need for some people to willingly take excessive risks, even when it puts their lives in danger, has been a huge boon for society throughout history.
The Wright Brothers risked their lives to prove flight was possible and we all benefit from this in immeasurable ways. Had they died in their efforts., other brave assured men and women would have filled their roles as pioneers of flight. We just needed enough people to take such risks.
The human race benefits by volume We only need a very small segment of risk takers to succeed for civilization to reap massive rewards. It's not always evident because we don't write books about those who didn't prevail. Inspirational stories about history are deceptively selective in this regard.
I'm not denouncing risk. I wholly agree with Goethe, "Boldness has genius, power and magic in it". But for every great success like the Wright Brothers, there are perhaps millions of colossal failures you've never heard with all the same attributes who willingly took the same style of risks - yet failed.
Progress depends on this. We need a lot of people willing to take risk in lieu of seemingly very poor odds. Humanity requires a ridiculously large number of failures to be assured of getting some big winners.
So how do we repeatedly get massive amounts of people to continuously push on despite such poor odds?
Ego. It's the perfect ingredient. Question a man's pride or rationale in the face of long odds and you'll typically find it only strengthens his resolve to prove you wrong.
To the extent that ego goes hand-in-hand with self-assuredness, humanity needs it. We need big egos - a lot of them.
Not every person with a big ego is a jerk. That's not the point. The Wright Brothers may have been fine gentlemen. But they were supremely confident in their ideas before they knew for certain things would work out, and that's attributed to ego.
How might things be different if human history was defined by caution instead of a willingness to forge ahead into uncharted waters?
Perhaps there'd be a lot more humility to go around, but there would considerably less ingenuity too.
So ask yourself, would you really rather live in a world without ego?
__________________________________________
Source: Mind Games: 25 Thought Experiments...
http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Games-Thought-Experiments-Imagination-ebook/dp/B01862TMWA
Why would you have satisfaction for having an opinion? Everyone has opinions. The act of believing doesn't require any effort at all.
In fact, it's the opposite that is challenging. Battling your own ego takes guts. No one likes to be wrong, so genuinely opening up to that possibility is the real test of courage.
Its perfectly natural to ignore things that don't jive with our already made up minds - its called confirmation bias. How often have you had an opinion, heard some good reasons that indicate you're probably wrong, and still thought to yourself, Screw it, I'm going to believe this anyway. I know I've done it.
John Kenneth Galbraith said it best:
"Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.”
Strong beliefs are just opinions you refuse to reconsider. Sure, you have good reasons for your views. Everyone does. But you're human, so you are just as susceptible as anyone to cognitive biases, bad judgement, and overemphasizing personal experience.
If you should be proud of anything, its having the humility to admit that even where you're most certain, you could still be wrong. Can you imagine a world where we were all this humble?
The Role of Ego
This is a large part of what ego is all about - that sense of self assurance we all get that makes us reject the idea of possibly being wrong. It makes us prefer to be agreed with rather than be corrected. We ignore those who disagree with us on matters that mean the most to us. Shouldn't it be the opposite?
Often times we deride those with big egos, labeling them as arrogant, self-centered, and lacking humility. You know the type. They walk around acting as if their "sh!t don't stink". Wouldn't the world be better off without big egos?
But hold on...
Why do we even have an ego? Do you ever wonder why the human ego evolved?
It's possible that humanity depends on ego to continually progress, at least the part defined by a strong self assurance. The need for some people to willingly take excessive risks, even when it puts their lives in danger, has been a huge boon for society throughout history.
The Wright Brothers risked their lives to prove flight was possible and we all benefit from this in immeasurable ways. Had they died in their efforts., other brave assured men and women would have filled their roles as pioneers of flight. We just needed enough people to take such risks.
The human race benefits by volume We only need a very small segment of risk takers to succeed for civilization to reap massive rewards. It's not always evident because we don't write books about those who didn't prevail. Inspirational stories about history are deceptively selective in this regard.
I'm not denouncing risk. I wholly agree with Goethe, "Boldness has genius, power and magic in it". But for every great success like the Wright Brothers, there are perhaps millions of colossal failures you've never heard with all the same attributes who willingly took the same style of risks - yet failed.
Progress depends on this. We need a lot of people willing to take risk in lieu of seemingly very poor odds. Humanity requires a ridiculously large number of failures to be assured of getting some big winners.
So how do we repeatedly get massive amounts of people to continuously push on despite such poor odds?
Ego. It's the perfect ingredient. Question a man's pride or rationale in the face of long odds and you'll typically find it only strengthens his resolve to prove you wrong.
To the extent that ego goes hand-in-hand with self-assuredness, humanity needs it. We need big egos - a lot of them.
Not every person with a big ego is a jerk. That's not the point. The Wright Brothers may have been fine gentlemen. But they were supremely confident in their ideas before they knew for certain things would work out, and that's attributed to ego.
How might things be different if human history was defined by caution instead of a willingness to forge ahead into uncharted waters?
Perhaps there'd be a lot more humility to go around, but there would considerably less ingenuity too.
So ask yourself, would you really rather live in a world without ego?
__________________________________________
Source: Mind Games: 25 Thought Experiments...
http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Games-Thought-Experiments-Imagination-ebook/dp/B01862TMWA
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